Community And Public Health Nursing

In the United States, many diseases like the flu are treated easily by available drugs administered by pharmacies. However, in third world countries like Africa, medical supply is not affordable in environments festered with contaminated water supply and lack of food sources. Sub-Saharan Africa is plagued by many diseases, but the most common disease is Malaria. Malaria is a type of disease that is spread by the female mosquito of the genus Anopheles. An individual will start to experience high fevers and chills. If left untreated, the individual could possibly die (Heyneman, 2014). Antimalarial drugs are a type of treatment that can counteract this disease. Doxycycline is an antimalarial drug that is commonly used, however its

Yahya A. J. J. Jammeh, a team of experts from Havana’s Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine arrived in the capital of Banjul to join the national malaria effort. “We have permanent doctors. Communities now have access to a doctor within a reasonable distance. We have found that there’s no cultural shock for the Cuban doctors. They adjust very well in our communities. Immediately they arrive, they are at home…They relate to the people. They see themselves as equals with the people. And people really appreciate that in this country - including the government. And so, they’ve done wonders, a lot of indicators have improved since the existence of the Cuban doctors in this country. It’s commendable.” says Mrs. Isatou Njie-Saidy, Gambia’s Vice President from Interview with Isatou Njie-Saidy, February 9, 2005. Not only that but the Republic of Cuba’s government and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) have entered a partnership to employ biotechnology in eradicating malaria in

Malaria can be treated using both vaccines and other prescription drugs. In developed countries this has effectively negated Malaria as a public health threat. For instance, in the United States there are only 1500 cases of malaria per year, all of which are linked to travel to tropical regions in Africa and South America. Unfortunately, less developed regions do not have the proper infrastructure to produce, store or distribute these drugs. Third-world efforts are focused on prevention rather than treatment. The majority of Malaria funding is allocated to two different prevention concepts, Insecticide Treated Nets (ITN’s) and Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS). Nets are made of finely woven fabrics which provide a physical barrier between infected mosquitoes and humans. Mosquitoes which land on the nets absorb insecticide which kills them. Nets can be costly, and have a high rate of misuse, as many villagers use them to fish. The alternative to ITN’s is the practice of Indoor Residual Spraying of insecticides. This is very effective in sprayed areas, but is stationary and poisonous to the

"About Malaria." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2015. .

Located in the Kingdom Protozoan Malaria is a parasitic mosquito born organism passed to humans by several species of the genus Anopheles and is responsible for about 220 million infections every year and 600,000- 1,200,000 deaths every year. The developing world is disproportionately affected which had led to some unique changes when dealing with infections such as drugs needing to be cheap, administered orally and stable at relatively high temperatures. However in keeping with the old saying prevention is better than cure many methods have been proposed and tested to control the mosquito vector that transmits malaria as supposed to treating the infect after it occurs.

Populations that are more susceptible to this illness includes children, pregnant women, HIV/AIDs patients and those who travel often [1]. These population groups are more prone to infection because they have lower immunity to the disease. Adults who have been exposed to the parasite before may develop naturally acquired immunity, which is why young children who has less exposure are more likely to be infected and to die from the disease [4]. In addition, people who travel often not only have a higher chance of becoming infected due to increased exposure to the parasite, but they may also bring the parasite to countries where Malaria has been eliminated. As a result, mosquitos that bites infected individuals may reproduce and spread the parasite to other people.

Malaria is an ancient disease. The name itself traces its origins to Medieval Italian: “mal aria” or bad air referred to a swampy area of Rome known as the Pontina that saw very high infection rates (Beltz, 2011). To this day, the disease continues to be one of the most important parasitic infections known to man. According to the World Health Organization, 3.4 million people may be considered at risk on a global scale and estimates indicate that there were 207 million cases in 2012 with 627,000 deaths (WHO, 2013). More than 85% of these cases occur on the continent of Africa as well as 90% of the deaths. In highly endemic regions, malaria is more of an issue of morbidity than mortality, although the majority of individuals may be parasitized at any given time only a minority exhibit severe symptoms (Marsh & Snow, 1997). Instead these countries are at a significant economic disadvantage due to ill workers, lack of tourism and company investments, not to mention the educational loss future generations also incur.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) states that it is important to address Malaria because as earlier stated, it effects 3.2 billion people, which means that almost half of the world’s population is at risk. Malaria is also a huge cause of death worldwide because in developing countries with warm climates, it is hard for them to get the proper resources they need in order to cure the disease. Although it is hard to find someone with Malaria in the U.S., it is very common in warm developing countries mostly because that is where the Anopheles mosquitos thrive the best. Therefore, the main reason for Malaria is the lack of resources and knowledge from these developing countries. Because they are developing countries with little money, it is hard

Here in America, having the privilege to go to the doctors even when you are not ill is taken for granted. While you’ve been comfortably impatient waiting in a doctors office, have you ever taken the time to think about the millions of people around the world who die merely because they do not have the medicine, the care, and the knowledge to even help themselves prevent these easily preventable diseases and illnesses. Every sixty seconds, malaria claims life of another precious child. Maybe this is news to you or maybe this is your opportunity to let this problem resonate, while taking into account the health issues others around the world face on a daily basis. The prevalence of major diseases, such as malaria, occurring in developing

Malaria is a recognizable disease around the globe. While significant efforts have been made since antimalarial treatments were introduced in the 1940s, the disease continues as an endemic world-wide. Ongoing efforts by global public health leaders and scientists continue to track disease patterns, causes, and effects on health outcomes to continuously work toward protecting and saving lives. Although current prevention efforts such as insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs) and indoor residual spraying (IRS) have impacted the rates of malaria, other advances are being made to control and eradicate malaria. Novel interventions such as spatial targeting for predicting risk in endemic geographic regions, using microbes to eliminate mosquito

About 3.3 billion people, that is about half of the world’s population are at risk of contracting malaria (figure 1). Every year there are 250 million cases of malaria, and nearly 1 million deaths. That amounts to 2,732 deaths per day. Out of those million people that die every year, 800,000 of them are African children under the age of 5. To control malaria three actions need to be taken: insecticides need to be used to decrease the vector population, people have to be educated as to how to prevent the vector from reproducing, and anti-malarial drugs need to be distributed. To understand the vector and what the vector is, scientists had to first discover what the parasite was and how it worked. It was not until the year 1880 that French Physician Charles Laveran discovered that Malaria was caused by a protozoan in the genus Plasmodium (Malaria, 2013)

Malaria is considered as one of the deadliest diseases around the world. The cases of malaria are getting worse and more serious especially in the African countries. Almost 40% of the world’s population could be affected by the disease. Malaria could cause over 1 million deaths each year and could result to enormous damages to human and social-being (Gething et al., 2014). Most of the international organizations concerning human health have been working on provisions for early the diagnosis and treatment of the disease as well as selective measures such as vector control.

Malaria is one of the most common life-threatening diseases found throughout the tropics and subtropics, especially in the sub-Saharan countries in Africa. In 2014, over 40% of global malaria deaths were found in two countries: Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (IBTimesUK). According to the World Health Organization, more than 90% of Nigeria’s population is at risk for contracting malaria and there are an estimated 100 million malaria cases with over 300,000 deaths per year, which are about 100,000 more deaths than from HIV/AIDS. Malaria is caused by parasites that are spread to humans through an infected mosquito’s bite. Luckily, malaria is preventable and curable. The mortality rates have fallen by 47% globally since

Malaria is an infectious disease caused by a protozoan of the genus Plasmodium, a parasite which lives inside its victims and consequently, inside their nutrient supply. Human malaria is specifically carried and spread via the female mosquito of the genus Anopheles (Marcus & Babcock 2009). There are over 50 species of Plasmodium, only four of which are responsible for causing human malaria: Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium malariae, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium vivax. P. falciparum is the most common species, held responsible for 75% of the cases followed by P. vivax causing 20%. P. falciparum accounts for the majority of deaths, however, recent evidence suggests P. vivax malaria to be associated with potentially life-threatening conditions similar to P. falciparum (Nadjm & Behrens 2012).

The last decade has seen an unprecedented amount of progress in malaria elimination efforts in Africa. With organizations and governments increasing contribution to provide malarial prevention and treatment, the incidence of malaria in Africa has dramatically decreased across the world with a 26% decrease since 2000 to 2010. However, there are still over 200 million cases of malaria and an estimated half a million deaths each year are caused by malaria with victims mostly children under the age of 5 and pregnant women.